Before I get myself into a whole heap of trouble, I'm talking about GUITAR bodies - not human ones! So, whatever shape you may be, hopefully there's something here that may help you when considering what body shape/size of guitar may be best suited to your playing style, music genre, even lifestyle.

Once again - *disclaimer* - I'm not going to give you advice on what's best for you, but what you may learn here is what you might 

expect from a particular body shape, so you can come to your own conclusion. The only advice I will give here at all, is that if any guitar doesn't feel comfortable, you will at some point tire of playing it and you may well quit, so above all else, select an instrument that FEELS good when you're playing it in the way/position you will mostly do that. So, if you're a sofa player, then be sure to think about that lovely big jumbo on a stool in the guitar store, in may well be right up under your chin when you get home and sit on the sofa with it!

My favourite guitar store - Richards Guitars (www.rguitars.co.uk) have both a stool and a sofa to try out their instruments, so you do have the opportunity to test it under the kind of conditions in which you will be living with your guitar.

What I'm going to give you here is a non-exhaustive list of guitar shapes and sizes, with images of a guitar that fits each one, and a few notes that indicate what kind ot tone you might expect to get, though - as covered in the previous page on Tonewoods, there are other factors that will determine what your guitar will produce.

Once again, this is only my personal experience, based on a lifetime of owning around 100 guitars in all, and how I found what suited me - and here's the key - it's my preference that helped me to let go of so many high end instruments that didn't produce THAT tone I was looking (well, listening) for. If you prefer a different tone, that's great - be yourself. As one old friend who worked in large guitar store once said to me, "Tone is an individual choice; what you like may not be what I like - we don't all like to same type of woman, and thank God for that, or the world would be full of very unhappy people". 

We are lucky to live in an age where good guitars are relatively affordable, and there is a wide choice of body shapes and sizes; when I began playing, at the age of 14, the music store had a choice of Classical, Dreadnought or Jumbo!!

So lock in, and let's get started.